United Airlines

Scarce aircraft, doubled fuel costs and Spirit’s exit have handed US airlines pricing power not seen since 2022. Data from a Cirium and Bloomberg Intelligence webinar shows who used it, who could not, and what changes when fuel eases.

Delta has added free Wi-Fi to its last uncovered Asia-Pacific routes, reaching about 95% of flights, as United and Southwest close the gap with Starlink.

Delta, United, American and Southwest all leaned on loyalty and premium in Q3 2026 to absorb fuel costs, each with its own lever but the same underlying logic.

A TNMT review of 18 airline loyalty programmes finds tiers and cards still dominate, while AI, hotel tie-ups and free Starlink Wi-Fi hint at a new model.

American will fit Starlink across its entire mainline fleet from 2027. With almost every serious competitor now committed, Delta’s bet on Amazon’s Leo network is starting to look less like discipline and more like exposure.

Qantas has confirmed nonstop Sydney–New York flights from mid-2028, completing a promise made in 2017. In a category that compresses every launch into a week, it has sold the same story for over a decade.

United, American and Air Canada are building their transatlantic growth around the Airbus A321XLR. Delta is the only major US network carrier refusing it, and the choice reveals two opposite theories of what premium is for.

Delta folded IT and digital product into a single role reporting to the CEO, and filled it from outside aviation. It is the fifth cross-industry hire for a marketing, loyalty or technology mandate in under a year.

United’s CEO dismissed one of the industry’s favourite AI use cases, arguing that AI trends towards the consensus view. He is betting on narrow, measurable applications while most of the industry bets the other way.

United’s largest-ever international expansion sends the A321XLR to Europe’s second-choice cities. It reads less like a routing decision than a choice about which traveller United wants to keep.